Gamaliel's Advice to the Sanhedrin

Fr. Scott Haynes

“For if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought. But if it be of God,

you cannot overthrow it, lest perhaps you be found even to fight against God” (Acts 5:38–39).

There is something solemn and piercing in the words of Gamaliel. He is not yet speaking with the burning faith of the Apostles, yet God uses even his caution to utter a truth of lasting power. Human schemes rise quickly and fall quickly. They make noise for a time, gather admirers, stir excitement, and then pass away like smoke scattered by the wind. But what is truly of God has a life that man cannot extinguish. It may be opposed, mocked, beaten, imprisoned, or buried under contempt, yet it rises again because its root is not in earth alone, but in heaven.

This is one of the great lessons of Christian history. Again and again the enemies of Christ have imagined that the Church could be silenced. They have used threats, laws, prisons, swords, ridicule, and falsehood. Yet the faith has endured. Empires have crumbled. Persecutors have died. Kingdoms have been swept away. But the name of Jesus Christ is still preached, still loved, still confessed. Why? Because the Gospel is not a merely human work. It is the work of God.

These words of Gamaliel also search our own souls. There are times when we resist what God is doing because it disturbs our comfort, our habits, or our pride. We can become like those rulers who were not really seeking truth but only trying to protect their position. It is a fearful thing to harden the heart against grace. To reject what is of God is not merely to disagree with men. It is to risk “fighting against God.”

How gentle and wise, then, should the Christian soul become. We must learn to ask not first, “Is this pleasing to me?” or “Does this fit my plans?” but rather, “Is this of God?” If it is only human vanity, it will perish on its own. But if God is in it, the safest place in the world is to bow in reverence and obedience.

There is comfort here too. If God has begun a true work in your soul, the world cannot destroy it unless you choose to turn away. Trials may test it. Weakness may humble it. Delays may purify it. But what God plants, He knows how to sustain. A vocation, a call to holiness, a life of prayer, a work of charity, a hidden growth in virtue: if these are truly of God, then they are stronger than opposition.

So, the words of Gamaliel stand as both warning and consolation. They warn us not to resist grace. They console us that God’s work cannot finally fail. Men may oppose it, but they cannot overthrow it.

Lord God, give us humble hearts, so that we may never resist Thy will through pride or fear. Keep us from fighting against Thee in the secret movements of grace. And if Thou hast begun any good work in us, strengthen and bring it to completion, so that our lives may bear witness not to what is merely human, but to what comes from Thee.